Students rush to use new school libraries
DaMauria Thomas can't get enough of the brand new books at his North Avenue Elementary School library, which recently reopened after 10 years.As far as sixth-grader DaMauria Thomas is concerned, one of the biggest stories in Twin Rivers Unified School District is the grand re-opening of the library at his beloved North Avenue Elementary school.
He was at the Oct. 7 celebration and can't say enough about the 5,000 brand new books available to him and other students.
"My first love is reading so this is amazing," says Thomas. "I want to be a lawyer. I can now come to our school library and check out all the books I want. The library will help all of us. I think it'll help improve our reading skills and our grades. I'll be here a lot."
Nearly four miles from North Avenue Elementary, Destiny Cockrell is just as thrilled as DaMauria Thomas. She, too, thinks one of the biggest stories in Twin Rivers has to do with a library opening. But in her case Garden Valley, which opened its first library in September.
"I've been at this school for three years and this is my first year with our own library," says Cockrell. "I like it. This is great because I can read all the time now and find out about things I don't know. Before the new library opened, I had to go buy books or go to the public library. Now when I need a book I can come to our library to look for it."
Thomas and Cockrell aren't the only ones overjoyed about having access to a school library. Administrators and staff who have worked long and hard to get the libraries up and running are excited too.
The North Avenue library had been closed approximately 10 years because of a lack of resources. Now there's a library media tech who will alternate between North Avenue and Garden Valley to make sure everything runs smoothly.
"We have brand new books and it was so exciting to open the boxes and get them on the shelves," says Laura Verdugo. "I loved every minute of it."
So did North Avenue principal Janis Wade.
"I really, really am almost close to tears thinking about how we've been able to bring this to our students after having been closed so many years," says Wade. "We can now bring them back to the love of reading. This will make a huge difference in the classroom."
Wade says teacher Justine Martin deserves
most of the credit for making sure the North Avenue library project got back on
track.
"I'm an advocate for the students and when they can't speak up, I need to speak up for them. That's part of my job as a teacher," says Martin. "I'm also an avid reader and students learn when they read. Our students may be limited where they live, but through books they can go anywhere in the world."
The two libraries are packing in
the kids and both schools say they're grateful for the district support in
getting everything they need to help students succeed.
The Garden Valley library has approximately 3,900 books housed in a former classroom. Principal Michele Williams credits the school site leadership team with getting the project off the ground.
"The first week was really wonderful to observe," says Williams. "Some 877 books were checked out and we only have 395 kids. We started with a sixth grade class checking out books on a Monday. On Tuesday there were 10 kids wanting to know if they could return their books because they already read them. So we made arrangement for them to come in during recess ... I feel this is going to make a big difference in our test scores, as far an English-language arts. Kids are just so enthused about reading because of the new library and that will make a real difference in how they achieve."
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